PC Mag: iPhone Tops

PC Magazine readers fingered the iPhone as the top cell phone in the PC Magazine "Trustworthy Tech" yearly bit.

"iPhone owners passionately love their devices. In its first year on the survey, the Apple iPhone scored a stunning 9.1 out of 10 from our readers, beating the ratings that every other phone, from every carrier, in nearly every category, has received in the three years we've been including cell phones. The iPhone's 9.6 scores in music and video playback might have been expected, but its 8.2 for call quality (a score significantly better than average), another 8.2 for coverage, and an 8.0 for earpiece volume show that it's not just the i our readers like. They love the phone, too.

"In the case of other devices, our readers seem to have settled into slightly cranky resignation. Almost all brands on nearly every carrier rated scores between 7.0 and 7.5 overall, with differentiations coming feature by feature. Check out our online charts for full details."

Palm fared poorly, especially on Sprint and Verizon (700 series woes, I'd imagine), Windows Mobile does better on voice and PDA functions than BlackBerry but BlackBerry still has some insane satisfaction ratings -- they manage to grab an 8.0 overall satisfaction rating on AT&T, for example.

Some highlights from the XLS files:

1.1 points higher than next best overall rating.

tops at text messaging

tops at picture messaging (and MMS isn't even supported yet!)

1.9 points higher than next best web browsing

2.5 points higher than next best music player

2.5 points higher than next best video player

lowest rate of required repair among smartphones

There is a dark side to the excel file: a black spot, a mote in God's eye with regards to the scores. When it comes to requiring technical support, the iPhone is merely average. It must be people asking IT for help on how to hack their iPhone.